Mary at St Agnes
by roothlace
Summary: Mary Bennet was quite content with her life - she was the not so-attractive Bennet sister and was unlikely to marry and it was fine, until she met Tom Bertram
1. Chapter 1

_Pride and Prejudice_ and _Mansfield Park_ don't belong to me

 **Mary At St. Agnes**

It was a bright sunny late afternoon in May and the reception area in St. Agnes hospital was bustling with activity, people were walking in and out of its huge doors; doctors, nurses, patients and visitors. Everyone seemed to have a destination in mind, all except one young woman, dark-haired and slender, who would have been pretty except that her mouth was too wide; she was standing uncertainly near the lifts, waiting for someone.

"Sorry, I'm so sorry," Bertha run towards her, "I know I said I would be through ten minutes ago but my computer just hang and then I had to ask George from IT to come down and you know how he is."

"Yes I do," Mary replied. George never liked leaving his office on the seventh floor.

"Thank you, Mary," Bertha said, "have a nice weekend."

Mary took the papers that Bertha had handed her wondering for the tenth time why she let herself be talked into helping Bertha or any of the other girls. Of course she knew the reason, she had just come to Leeds barely two months ago for work and so far she couldn't afford to go home on the weekends, or even go out for that matter, so working late helped with the boredom and the loneliness.

The new hospital administrator expected a report from every department at the end of every week, although why he asked for hard copies instead of soft ones like every else did was beyond comprehension and at first when they'd learned that this was what he required they'd assumed that he was an old man but according to reports from the nurses and doctors and Bertha who'd met him; Mary who worked with environmental services read cleaners had yet to meet him, apparently Tom Bertram hadn't yet found the time with meet with them; he was young barely thirty-five.

She punched the upward button near on the lift and patiently waited for it to come down.

000

Tom Bertram with spectacles perched on his nose went through the report from the emergency department occasionally making notes on the pages. The hospital board had handpicked him for the administrator's job when the old administrator, Mr. Jones, had died. They wanted someone to help turn the hospital around, to make it more profitable and more importantly to ensure that they didn't lose government funding which was likely to happen if things didn't turn around in the near future.

His reading was interrupted by a knock and he shouted, "Come," without caring to look up to see who had entered his office.

Mary had hovered behind the half-open door before deciding to knock and she stood uncertainly in the doorway now giving him a good view of her face which was framed with glorious dark hair. When he noticed her standing there he took the opportunity to study her at leisure, something his mother had told him was very rude to do, she wasn't pretty but her eyes were quite beautiful he decided and she had a pleasant smile.

Mary noticed him studying her but she decided not to say a word and instead walked towards him and handed over the papers, "Bertha, Miss Townsend asked me to give these to you, she would have brought them herself but she had a date."

"And you don't? Miss er...?"

"Bennet. Mary Bennet," she told him, "and no, I don't."

"You work here?" Tom knew he was being rude but he couldn't help himself.

"Yes, with Bertha, in Environmental services," she told him.

"I see."

"You haven't been down to see us yet," Mary continued, "but I daresay you'll find time before the month is out."

"What?"

"You've visited all the other departments," Mary told him, "well, apart from radiology, pathology and environmental services."

"I don't know that my work was of such interest to you," he observed.

"I won't say interest exactly," Mary told him, "but we're all anxious to see the new administer especially as it's been made clear to us that our continued stay here depends on you."

"I think it would be a good idea if you left my office, Miss Bennet," Tom said, "I have a lot of work and interruptions like yours are very annoying. Please be kind enough to tell Miss Townsend that in future she should endeavor to hand in her reports by herself, date or no date, or at the very least not to send you."

He bent over to read his papers and didn't watch her leave the room.

As Mary hurried to the lift and soon found herself outside the hospital. It had begun to rain when she was indoors but luckily for her she was always prepared and she pulled out her umbrella and walked over to join the queue at the nearest bus stop.

The grapevine had been right, Tom Bertram was a handsome man, with dark hair, a splendid nose, heavy-lidded eyes and quite the most beautiful mouth she'd ever seen, even his voice, although he'd been quite angry, had been nice.

He hadn't liked her; Mary thought, not many people did, she tended to speak her mind without a care and liked to laugh, most people found that annoying. She hadn't seen a wedding ring on his finger but that didn't mean that he wasn't engaged, not that mattered to her, their paths were unlikely to cross again.

000

Tom looked up after he was sure that Mary Bennet had left; he had been rude to her and there was no excuse for his behaviour, he had no right to take out his displeasure about being at St. Agnes hospital on her. His father had forced him to work here, of course being on the hospital board had made it very easy for him to do so, also that fact that Tom had degrees in economics, accounting and customer service made Tom more than qualified to do the job.

Tom had decided to use his knowledge to run a casino and an online betting business and all had been going well, although his parents and his brother Edmund disapproved, until his business partner Yates had run off with all his money and he'd had to turn to his father for help. Sir Thomas had been more than willing to help Tom, all Tom had to do was use all his business savvy to turn St. Agnes around.

He knew that the staff found him an oddity, he never socialised with them although to be fair, he'd been there less than a month, and the fact that he preferred hard copies to soft copies was also strange in this day and age, nobody knew but Tom was unable to work on a computer for long, a result of his misspent youth, so he had to work with paper; he really didn't care what people thought about him, all he wanted was to improve the situation at St. Agnes and go back to what he was really good at.

000

"I met the new administrator," Mary said.

"Is he as bad as people say he is?" Kitty asked.

"He was quite rude," Mary told her sister.

"He's from that rich family, isn't he?" kitty asked, "Rich people are always rude, Mare, think nothing of it. I'll see you tomorrow."

Kitty Mary's younger sister was visiting her for the weekend; she'd been accepted to Leeds University and was looking for cheap housing, she wasn't going to live with Mary unless she absolutely had to.

"See you tomorrow."

000


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks for reading and reviewing

000

Tom Bertram paused and looked around at his audience. He hated speaking in public but the new measures that he was planning on introducing had to be communicated to the staff and it had been decided that having a public lecture was the best way to do this.

At least the room was dark; he couldn't actually see all the people looking at him, although the dark gave them an advantage – they could him very well. The best thing about this talk was that he was speaking on a topic about which he was very passionate – making money so he could speak from his heart without consulting the notes that he'd been forced to make. He tried to steal a glance at his watch but he couldn't quite make out the time; he had dreaded the speaking part but now realised that he hated the question-and-answer session more, he didn't quite know what to do with his hands and there was no lectern to hide behind.

As he looked around the almost darkened room the light shifted and he could actually make out some of the faces; most of the audience seemed animated and were having mini discussions as they came up with questions; that is, apart from Mary Bennet.

He couldn't believe his eyes.

She was fast asleep.

000

"Wake up, it's time to leave."

Mary slowly lifted her head and squinted at Bertha who had shaken her awake. "Oh, dear, I just meant to close my eyes for a second or so."

"You must have been very tired," Bertha told her, "you slept through it all."

"I slept through it all?" Mary asked her in shock. "How long was it?"

"Give or take two hours."

"I slept for two hours," Mary moaned, "and you let me."

"I did try to wake you on more than one occasion," Bertha told her, "but you always went right back to sleep."

"How was the talk?"

"Very good, actually," Bertha enthused, "your Mr. Bertram is good."

"He's not my Mr. Bertram," Mary denied immediately. Ever since Tom Bertram had sent word to Bertha that she should never send Mary to his office again, all her friends had begun to call him her Mr. Bertram. It annoyed her no end.

"Let's hurry before all the good stuff is eaten," Bertha told her.

They made their way to the dining room where tables were laden with food and drink. Mary was at the tea table deciding if she wanted chamomile or eucalyptus tea when she spied Tom Bertram making his way towards that table; all the people he passed were congratulating him on a good talk and saying that they were sure this ideas would revolutionise St. Agnes.

"Good talk," she told him when he stood next to her and picked up a mug.

"I didn't figure you for a liar," he replied.

"A liar?" Mary was angry. How dare he call her a liar? What made him think that she was a liar?

"You couldn't possibly know how good the talk was," he smiled at her, "since you slept through it."

Mary's cup slipped and would have fallen to the ground if Tom hadn't acted quickly. As it was, they were both scalded by her eucalyptus tea.

"I'm sorry," Mary murmured; she looked at his trousers which were becoming wetter by the second and figuring that there was nothing she could do to make the situation any better, excused herself and hurried out of the room.

"What happened?" Bertha hurried after her. "Did he say something?"

"No."

"Mary," her friend stopped her, "you didn't pour tea on your Tom on purpose did you?"

"Of course not," Mary was affronted, "it was an accident."

"So what happened?"

"Bertha, he knew that I was asleep."

"No way," Bertha said, "not unless he has night vision of some sort, the room was mostly dark."

"He told me," Mary hissed.

Bertha couldn't help herself; she burst out and laughed.

"I'm going home," Mary said, "I'll see you tomorrow."

000

"So he saw sleeping during his lecture," Kitty said, "big deal, I'll have you know I intend to sleep through most of mine."

Mary glared at her younger sister.

"I'm sure he didn't take it personally," Elizabeth said, "and if he should ask you had a very good reason for sleeping. You were tired; you hardly got any sleep last night."

Kitty had finally found some cheap accommodation and Mary and Elizabeth were helping her move. Elizabeth and Kitty had arrived the evening before from Pemberley, Elizabeth's home, where Kitty had been staying for a week, and the three of them had spent most of the night shopping and moving Kitty into her room.

"He could get me fired," Mary said, "this is my second strike; the first time we met he made it seem like I was overly interested in him and then this."

"Sleeping through his lecture definitely tells him that you're not interested in him at all," Kitty said. "So he should be happy."

"Kitty, I think you're missing the whole point," Elizabeth told her gently.

"Well, she's not interested in him," Kitty said, "she's never interested in any of the guys, although I must say that Tom Bertram is quite the looker."

"How do you know?" Mary asked. "That he's a looker, I mean."

"There's this little thing known as the internet," Kitty replied, "you should use it sometime."

"I'm going to check on the food," Mary said, and would have left the room but Kitty helpfully reminded her that they had ordered Chinese.

"He wouldn't get you fired," Elizabeth reassured Mary as they ate, "I refuse to believe that he is that petty."

"I didn't think I can ever face him again," Mary confessed, "why did I have to pretend that I had heard what he'd said?"

"You were trying to be polite," Elizabeth said, "and that at least he should take as a compliment."

"You're just saying that Lizzie," Mary said, "you know I've never liked this job but I can't imagine not having one."

"You're not losing your job," Elizabeth said, "if he tries to get you fired we'll sue him."

"Enough with Mary's woes," Kitty told them, "the singing's about to begin." She increased the volume on the TV and the three of them began to watch the contest.

000

"She was actually fast asleep?" Edmund asked again.

"Yes she was," Tom replied.

"Wow, what a blow to your ego."

"It's not a blow to my ego," Tom said, "it's just plain rude."

"You said you saw her in the shops late last night, didn't you?" Ed asked him, "she must have been tired, I mean, the talk was at three o'clock in the afternoon, I would have slept through it too."

"Thanks Ed."

"She must be something this Mary Bennet," Ed told his brother, "I've never seen you riled up over a woman like this before."

"I'm not riled up," Tom denied. "Like I said, it was quite rude of her to sleep through the talk; I'm trying to help them."

"Is Bennet with a single 'T' or double 'T'?"

"Single 'T', why?"

"I'm looking her up, that's why," Ed replied. He scrolled through his phone. "Wow, no wonder you can't stop talking about her."

"What do you mean?"

"Just look at those eyes," Edmund told him, "they must be even more stunning in real life."

"Shut up Edmund," Tom mumbled. He was not interested in Mary Bennet.

"Good night, Tom," Edmund pulled on his coat. "I guess Dad was right as usual."

"Good night, Edmund."

000


	3. Chapter 3

**Thanks for reading and reviewing**

000

Tom watched his brother leave and thought of getting the car out and going for a drive – he loved driving at night, that's how he'd spotted Mary shopping the night before; he debated for a few more seconds and then changed his mind. He decided to go bed instead, he had a family do the next day.

000

"You said 7 o'clock," Mary protested. "It's barely 3 p.m." Bertha and Linda were standing outside her flat. She'd seen Elizabeth off earlier in the day and Kitty had also left, she had friends to hang out with. Mary, Bertha and Linda had made the plans to go cheese- and-wine tasting almost a month earlier.

"You know how long it takes Linda to get ready," Bertha said, "if we don't start now we may not make it."

"What do you mean get ready?" Mary asked, "What's wrong with what you're wearing now?" Both Bertha and Linda were wearing jeans and T-shirts.

"Do want us to be laughed out of the place?" Bertha asked. "This is a serious fashion event and there're going to photographers and stuff, you wouldn't us ending up in the mags looking less than our best would you?"

"I was planning on going like this," Mary told them. She was wearing her favourite skinny jeans- black with a tiny white shirt and converse shoes.

"You don't look half bad," Bertha said, "but we're not wearing jeans today."

"I like jeans," Mary protested, "they're comfortable."

"So are dresses," Linda told her, "And I know what you should wear."

They dragged Mary to her room and opened the wardrobe; they obviously knew the dress they were talking about because Linda opened the bottom drawer and pulled out a dress.

"No," Mary said immediately. "I'm not wearing that." It was a short black dress, shorter than the clothes Mary normally wore; Linda was the one who'd convinced her to buy it a few weeks ago. She'd never worn it, although it had looked good on her when she'd tried it on in the shop.

"It will look good with your ankle boots," Linda insisted, "and you're definitely wearing it."

Two hours later, the three of them left Mary's flat all of them wearing dresses and she had to admit they looked good; although she couldn't help but wonder if all the make-up they were wearing was necessary.

000

"This is nice," Mary looked around the room. The cheese-and-wine tasting event was being held at an upscale restaurant. She was glad her friends had convinced her to dress because she had yet to see anyone wearing jeans and there were no T-shirts in sights, and the press was all over the place. "How did you get tickets again?"

"From my brother's friend," Linda told her, "I told you."

"What does he do?"

"What does it matter," Bertha interrupted, "we're here and we're going to have fun. That's all that matters."

The cheese and wine were placed on separate tables that were elegantly dressed. The wine tables which consisted of white wines and champagne had small glasses and champagne flutes; while the cheese tables had crackers on the side as well as cheese knives and silverware.

It was all so beautiful Mary was afraid to touch anything.

000

"I hate such things," Tom said, "do I really have to go?"

"We're all going," Thomas Bertram told his son, "your sister's husband arranged it and we all to have to show our support."

"You don't even like Rushworth," Tom told his father.

"It doesn't matter what my feelings for Rushworth are," Thomas said.

"We're doing this for Maria," Bree, their mother said, "and that's the end of it."

Edmund laughed at his brother; he'd told him that there was no way he was getting out of it but Tom had said he'd try anyway. "Why do they have to showcase their wines at such an event?"

The Rushworths owned vineyards and every year they hosted an event to introduce the new wines onto the scene. This year Peter, Maria's husband had decided that it would be done with the official opening of their restaurant and it promised to be a very prestigious and interesting event.

Julia finally came downstairs; they'd been waiting for her. "This is going to be amazing," she exclaimed, "let's go."

000

Tom separated from his family almost as soon as they entered the restaurant; Mr. and Mrs. Bertram joined the senior Rushworths who were talking to the important guests, Julia joined her sister and Edmund was whispering and laughing with Fanny Price, the girl-from-next-door who was practically part of their family. Edmund and Fanny tried to convince him to stay with them but he refused, he didn't want to be a third wheel.

As he moved around the room, keeping away from any wine and cheese, he saw spotted Megan Crawford, every time they met at social gatherings such as these she attached herself to him like a limpet, he'd even overheard her once telling her friends that she would marry him if it was the last thing that she did.

He ducked behind a pillar and bumped into someone.

"I'm sorry, I didn't see you -," he stopped and stared at her in shock.

"Mr. Bertram," Mary smiled stiffly at him, "it was my fault I'm sure."

"Call me Tom, please," he told her, "and I'm the one who should apologise."

"Fine."

"You look really nice, by the way," he said.

"Thank you," Mary replied. "Maria Rushworth's your sister isn't she?"

"Yes."

"I remember reading about her wedding and seeing her pictures in the mags," Mary said, "wow."

"I guess now you know what I'm doing here," he said.

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Mary replied, "I think this is amazing."

"It would be even more amazing if I wasn't forced to come here," Tom complained.

"You'd rather be at home on a night like this?"

"Wouldn't you?" he countered.

"Normally yes," Mary agreed, "but tonight I'm happy to be out with the beautiful people and who knows I might actually learn something."

"I guess I should adopt your attitude then," he said, and then quickly pulled her close to him, before Mary could ask what was going on a very striking young woman dressed in a fabulous off shoulder red dress stood infront of them.

"Tom," she said smiling, "I thought that was you."

"Megan Crawford," Tom replied, "you're looking good."

"I know," she preened, "what are you doing way back here?"

"This is my date," Tom introduced Mary, "Mary Bennet."

"Really?" Megan's tone suggested that she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You came with her?"

"Yes," Tom smiled at her, "if you'll excuse us, I'm sure I'll run into you again before we leave." Tom all but dragged Mary to another corner of the room leaving Megan standing there staring at them.

"That was quite rude," Mary told him.

"She'll get over it."

"If you don't want to go out with her why not just tell her?" she asked.

"I've tried," Tom replied, "many times, maybe now she'll get the message."

"I doubt it," Mary told him.

"Let's forget about Megan and enjoy our evening."

Mary stood with Tom for a few minutes and then she remembered; Bertha and Linda had left her to find the loo, they would be wondering where she'd gone. "I have to find my friends," Mary said, "I guess I'll see you around."

000

"Wasn't that Mary Bennet?" Edmund and Fanny had walked over to join Tom after Mary walked away.

"Yes."

000

"Have you seen your Mr. Bertram?" Bertha asked.

"He's here?" Linda asked. "Where is he?"

"I haven't actually seen him yet," Bertha replied, "but he's bound to be here somewhere, Maria Rushworth is his sister you know."

"She dresses so well," Linda said. "Did you see Megan Crawford's dress?"

Bertha and Linda both sighed; they didn't even see Mary roll her eyes.

Luckily for Mary, and she wasn't quite sure why she thought it was lucky, she was torn between wanting to see Tom again and hoping against hope that they didn't run into him, they left without seeing Tom.

As she prepared to bed later that night she assured herself thrice that she didn't mind that she hadn't seen him again. It wasn't like she'd gone there to see him, was it?

000


End file.
